


Filia Fidelis

by Empatheia



Category: Bleach
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2007-01-06
Updated: 2007-01-06
Packaged: 2017-11-08 17:15:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,311
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/445570
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Empatheia/pseuds/Empatheia
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Board games, a hillside at dusk, and too much alcohol.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Filia Fidelis

**_To:_ ** _Akon  
 **From:** Hisagi Shuuhei_

_Hey, forehead-nipples. I have food and sake if you're up for shogi tonight. Touzainanboku Hillside at seven._

**_To:_ ** _Hisagi Shuuhei  
 **From:** Akon_

_Lewd-tattoo —  I consent. I will bring the board as usual._

So there they were, sitting on a hillside at dusk with a pair of tall red candles, peering over a dim checkered board dotted with odd hexagonal pieces. It was their eight hundred and seventy-sixth game. They had been playing each other for several decades, but the game never seemed to get old.

Hisagi was sprawled on his side, head propped on his hand and legs untidily crossed. Akon sat with his legs neatly folded in a lotus position, leaning his elbow on his knee. From behind, they were difficult to tell apart. Each had dark hair. Akon's spiked defiantly no matter what he did to it, and Shuuhei's was spiked on purpose, but only those who knew them very closely knew that. Both were lean and tall and functionally muscled.

They could have been brothers.

Their memories of the living world weren't clear enough to confirm one way or the other, but they liked to believe that they were. They were that sort of friends, the sort that on earth would have wished for their parents to be married so that they could legally call each other siblings. Few people even knew they were friends. They were that sort of friends too, the kind no one knows about.

Akon won the game.

He usually won, not because he was smarter than Shuuhei, but because his type of brain was good at games. Shuuhei was good at spur-of-the-moment battle strategy, and Akon was not. Akon was good at long-term, sixteen-moves-ahead planning. So, he won at shogi and lost in battle, and the balance was maintained.

"Drink more sake," Shuuhei suggested wryly. "I might actually have a chance then."

Akon wordlessly tipped the flagon back and drained nearly half of it. Shuuhei rolled his eyes, and they played again. Akon still won, but it was closer this time.

The sun set. They played two more games. Akon won the first, and Shuuhei the second... after Akon finished off the sake on his own. It was hardly fair, but Shuuhei was pleased anyway.

Eventually, they fell asleep in the grass on either side of the skewed, forgotten game-board.

**x**

They ran into each other at full tilt, coming around a corner going in opposite directions. The sound when their skulls collided was very unhealthy.

"Watch where you're going, forehead-nipples!" Shuuhei growled, rubbing his dented head.

"I could say the same to you, lewd-tattoo," Akon retorted coolly.

They glared at each other for all of ten seconds, then grinned.

"The hill, seven o'clock?" Shuuhei said while turning away with a shrug.

Akon nodded, though Shuuhei couldn't see it. "You bring the sake. I will bring the board."

**x**

"I won that one honestly," Shuuhei said proudly. "You've hardly had anything to drink at all, this time. But I still won."

Akon huffed and crossed his arms. It was already dark outside, but they hadn't noticed yet. "I made a stupid mistake."

"You _didn't_ ," Shuuhei pressed obstinately. "You played well. I just won, that's all."

Akon had to admit that he was right. Hisagi had learned over these thousands of games. The win was honest. He sat up and made a sound of annoyance. "One win. Against how many honest wins that I have? Hardly an impressive number."

Shuuhei growled. "God, you're a sore loser. How about you just let me be happy about winning for once?"

And that made Akon instantly feel like a heel. He bowed his head and smiled secretly. "I apologize, Shuuhei. Of course you are right — the win was honest, as you say. Perhaps now, at last, we can have some _real_ games."

"What the hell is that supposed to mean?" Shuuhei yelled, pushing the board aside to pin Akon to the ground by his shoulders. "These _were_ real games! You were just better than me up till now!"

"I'm _still_ better than you," Akon said with deliberate insolence. "One win does not overthrow that."

Shuuhei glared down at him, frustrated and flinty-eyed. He could not seem to think of anything to say that would accurately convey how annoyed he was at the moment. That made Akon feel more than a little smug... until Shuuhei leaned down and bit him sharply on the lip.

"...What was that?" Akon asked faintly.

Hisagi blushed ferociously, but threw his head up sideways and made a face to cover it. "You _suck._ "

"All right," said Akon equanimously, then propped himself up on his elbows, closed in, and gently drew Shuuhei's lower lip into his mouth. He drew his tongue across it once, twice, then let it go.

The blush grew to epic proportions, but Shuuhei did not move anywhere. "What was _that?_ " he returned unsteadily.

"An experiment." Akon lay back and crossed his hands behind his head, ignoring the red-faced lieutenant who was still leaning over him. "A _successful_ experiment."

"I can't believe you did that!"

"You started it." Inside, Akon was writhing with glee at Shuuhei's stunned reaction. He'd wanted to do that or something similar for quite some time, and hadn't expected the opportunity to come in quite that guise. Quietly, taking care to keep his expression from revealing too much, he savoured the lingering aftertaste of secondhand sake and tried to ignore the growing sensation of deep dissatisfaction that spread through his veins like alcohol.

"I did not! Well. I did, but I didn't mean it like _that._ "

"Oh?" Akon replied slowly with a lazy smile. "Are you sure?"

"Yes!" Shuuhei yelled, near to bursting with horror. "I think!"

Akon grinned, and pushed off the ground with one sure movement. A moment later, their positions had been unexpectedly reversed, and Shuuhei was doing his best deer-in-the-headlights impression as Akon smiled down at him.

"Say 'you win,'" Akon ordered.

Shuuhei frowned and furrowed his brow. "No way."

"Say it, or I'll do it again."

" _No._ To both."

Akon shook his head and put on an expression of mock chiding. "Now, when did I say you had a choice? Say it."

"No."

" _Say_ it."

"Not a chance, forehead-nipples."

"Fine, then." Akon always kept his promises, and his threats. This was sort of a little of both, and he was delighted to keep it in any case. His head swooped down and he attacked Shuuhei's lower lip with his own lips and teeth, swallowing the other's startled yell of outrage. After a few moments, he pulled back and smirked. "I win."

"You do not!" Shuuhei gasped.

"Oh?"

"The game isn't over, moron. I haven't gone yet!"

Akon had to struggle with everything he had not to let his smile split his face right in half. Instead, he managed a derisive snort and a raised eyebrow, but it was very strained and even in the darkness he was sure Shuuhei could tell.

He could, as evidenced a moment later by his cocky grin and upwards lunge.

They span through the air, locked together, and Akon's head reeled. He hadn't expected this, either, nor the sheer enthusiasm Shuuhei was pouring into winning the 'game.'

They landed with a thud, Akon back on the bottom with Shuuhei's full weight sprawled atop him.

" _I_ win," Shuuhei said with a scowl.

"What game in the world has only one turn each?" Akon asked practically. "It's mine now. Brace yourself."

**x**

Morning found them exhausted and laughing helplessly, spread on the grassy hillside sans most of their clothing.

"I win," they said simultaneously, then went off in peals of laughter all over again.

They might have been brothers, once... but now, they were lovers, which was a different kind of wonderful.

"You do _not!_ "

"Do!"

"Not!"

"Do!"

"No— ngh!"

"See? My win."

**X**

 


End file.
